Case 98-2 "Current Events"
by Prof. Richard W.
(formerly of the University of ____________)
All of the characters and their behaviour are fictional, and anyone attempting their behaviour is bound to get into a lot of trouble. Copyright © 2004 by Richard Williams, all other rights are reserved.
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[Academic standards require that I reveal a special interest in the subject matter, due to what I regard as my unfair dismissal from the University of _____________ back in the days when sexual harassment was so vaguely defined.
That the Dean of my faculty walked in on Cindy (the blonde cheerleader), and I, as she rode me vigorously in that big leather chair in my office should not have been considered as evidence. For those who did not read my previous account of the incident, she was just trying to find out what her dormmates had been talking about. No one testified against me, and, in fact, several other faculty members told me privately that HE had the hots for her, but had been unsuccessful. Publicly, my dismissal had to do with a loss of funding for my research into the paranormal.]
During the uproar involving presidential behavior in the U.S. capitol, I cast a discrete message out over the Internet, contacting men and women in discussion groups who understood my scientific concerns. I wanted to document its initial effects on the sexually aware public. As my studies of the paranormal had advanced, I was coming to a hypothesis that part of such events could be explained by hypnotic effects, and even by altered states created by unintentional phenomena. That might include excessive tv viewing. [Note to "Zoltar27": YES, I know that you are from another planet! Do not e-mail me again! I said "part of such events" - please note. - Professor R]
This electronic medium is amazing. Before the remaindered copies of the Clinton Grand Jury Videotape had even hit the 99-cent shelf, I had several leads to follow. As usual, some of them were too shy or edgy about interviews, but one man was quite willing to share, and in turn, he arranged for his new mistress to share with us, too.
MR. BRENZ' EXPERIENCE:
I am Chief Operating Officer of a software development firm. I'm unusual, in that I'm 59 years old. Most of my counterparts are younger, but I was fortunate to get into the field early. It is not immodest of me to say that I have a strong imagination - I'm just quoting the trade press on that - and that's kept me alive in this crazy field.
My wife, Kathy, is a wonderful woman who was an underachiever earlier in life.
Lately, though, with our kids grown and feeling more established, she's become a great organizer of charity activities. I enjoy talking with her when we see each other. Great sex of years ago faded, though, and she refuses to see a counselor with me. Then she rushes off to another event. She doesn't have time to think about. It's odd, but as I grow more secure in my work, I do have more time to think about it. I knew that I did not want to replace her with a trophy wife, though. I liked her too much, maybe even loved her still.
Out at the last conference in Las Vegas, Jim _________ had introduced me to his mistress. He's a plastics molding supplier-- makes cabinets for computer equipment. A great guy on our annual industry golf "tour" and she was a lot of fun at the big dinner afterward. He and I knew each other back to MIT, and so it was easy for him to remember how much of a skirt-chaser I was in college, and for him to have a suggestion for me now.
"Brenzie? Why don't you quit moping about your wife and take on someone on the side? Wiebke and I have a lot of fun, richtig? Hey, she's even teaching me some Deutsch." He patted Wiebke affectionately on the arm. The 23-year old German artist was in love with the desert southwest, and found that she could overstay her tourist visa as long as Jim wanted her managing the company's desert ranch guest house. She and I laughed good-naturedly at her clumsy, but generous, man.
"I don't know how to go about that. The only women that I see are in my work place, and I don't need a sexual harassment case. I was disgusted when I found that guy in Receiving doing, you know... I canned him and had that consultant draw up a good harassment policy."
I actually had been very supportive of the women in the firm, and we had kept a good reputation with our policies and our implementation of them. And besides, I learned a long time ago when I was single that I only could go for intelligent, interesting women.
"You're not looking at it in the right way. Hey, we don't have time right now to go into it, but you're big on training, right?"
"Yes...." I must have looked puzzled.
"The way to go about it for a guy like you is with training. There's a one-week class out in Marin County, a... Master of Sexual Expression course. Short-handed as MSX. I've got the contact info at home, we'll send it to you."
"What will THAT do for me?" I raised my eyebrows.
"Hey, it's just for guys like you. Believe it or not, I took it. Some guys just naturally pick up women, but you want to think about it all the time, and so now you can't. The reason they call it a "Master" program is because you have to have finished have some kind of college degree even to get in. They can build on that and teach you stuff that Joe Six-Pack would never want to even know." I noticed that as the blonde listened to this and recalled whatever Jim had demonstrated to her from the course, that she began to breath a bit more heavily. Her lips parted slightly, and her cheeks flushed. Something about her bra had become uncomfortable, and she tugged at it absent-mindedly, as if concerned that she was going to pop out of it.